Admiral Hyman Rickover gave a great memo to David Packard on 22 May 1970:
… to bring about real improvement in weapons acquisition cannot be corrected by management policy directives …
My experience has been that when a directive such as the one you propose is issued, most of the effort goes into the creation of additional management systems and reports and the preparation of large numbers of documents within the Service to “prove” that the requirements of the directive are being me—in order to justify funds for the Service …
I think that if you check you will find that virtually all of these documents, which have required so much effort to prepare, are used almost entirely to gain approval for programs, and are simply filed away once funds are released. They are of no use to the working people in performing their jobs. In my opinion the present situation in this regard is worse than I have ever seen it. Further, I predict that the way the present bureaucracy would implement your [Packard’s] proposed directive will make matters still worse.
Pp 306-07 – “Weapon Systems Acquisition Process” Hearings Before the Committee on Armed Services United States Senate, Ninety-Second Congress, First Session, December 3-9, 1971.
And indeed, Packard’s 5000-series regulations and milestone acquisition process (1969-1971) may have made things worse, despite them being so well-intentioned. Packard never addressed the Programming-Planning-Budgeting System, so his reforms simply sat on-top of existing patterns of justification and approvals, and within a couple years, the services were crying about layers upon layers of approvals and cost-effectiveness analyses.
It is similar to what is happening today. We have a number of ill-defined avenues that side-step the regular acquisition process. You often hear that it is opaque and difficult to check all those boxes, so they just aren’t done.
Here is Lt. Gen. Paul Ostrowski from the US Army:
“… we have no choice but to get engaged in changing the culture …”
Currently, although waivers are available for ACAT III documentation, no one applies for them. “Why?” Ostrowski asked. “It’s easier to do the documents than to ask for the permission not to. Because that’s the culture that you’ve been raised in.”
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